Word: darman
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Darman bristles at the suggestion that he is an ambitious mercenary who works for Reagan only to be at the center of power. "Basically, I'm committed to public service," he contends. "I am a long-term idealist and a short-term realist." He says that he supports the Reagan revolution as "an important corrective" to stop America from drifting too far from a workable free-market economy. "If I had to go home too many nights and tell my self that what I am doing is not right, I could not continue doing this...
Ideology aside, Darman's laser-like political foresight has served his boss well...
...supreme self-confidence (he is doubt less the only White House official who cuts his own hair) is accompanied by a razor-sharp intellect. In 1982, during the impending crisis in Social Security funding, Darman suggested forming a bipartisan commission to put the system on more solid financial footing. Currently he is heavily in volved in the White House negotiations with Congress on ways to find a "down payment" on the U.S. deficit. Says Deaver: "Darman is the best strategist in the White House when it comes to dealing with Congress." He can, however, be abrasive; some key legislators have...
...Darman is unusually sensitive to anything that might be perceived as a slight within the pecking order. An aide recalls that Darman became seriously upset when his name was omitted from the official manifest at the funeral of Nancy Reagan's father in Arizona in 1982. His brilliance and ambition are often translated into a scorching impatience with underlings who are inefficient or who he feels are mediocre...
...Darman surprised his closest associates last year by lobbying against a contingency tax in crease, when some insiders had hoped the President would push to lower the deficit...